The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-07-09
WONDERFUL

Jacques v~aucans6n's Achievements n
Msetzels Trumpster.
The king of automata constructors
was Jaques Vaucanson, born at Greno.
bic in 1909. While quite a boy he made
several self-moving figures. The bent
of his mind was determined by a rath.
er peculiar circumstance Being to
himself in the house Of u friend to
which he went with his mother, he per.
ceived through the crack Of a partition
an old clock with slowly swinging
pendulum, which excited his attention.
Next time he visited this house he had
a pencil and paper with him, and made
a rough sketch Of the clock. BY earnest
study and investigation he succeeded
in making = clock Of his own out of
pieces Of wood, and his wooden clock
kept time fairly we'll. Then began his
experiments with automatic. He made
a wooden chapel, with moving figures
Of priests. He invented a hydraulic
machine for the city of Lyons, and
later, in the same place, per.
fected a machine for silk weaving
that caused the work people
to rise against him in arms.
His first great achievement in auto.
mata was his flute-player, which was
one of the wonders of his time. He
had been i'll, and made it during his
convalescence. The several parts Of
it were made by different workmen to
prevent its discovery. Only a faithful
servant aided him in his secret. Ac-
cording to D Alembert, the remarkable
figure stood on a pedestal, in which a
portion Of mechanism was concealed,
and the player not only blew into the
instrument. but with its lips increased
or diminished the sound, performing
the legato and staccato passages with
perfection, and lingering with COM.
plete accuracy. 1t was exhibited in
Paris in 1888 and made a great sensa-
ton. Vaueanson next made a Aage.
%olet-player, and later a mechanical
duck, which waddled, swan. dived
and quacked. and like De Gennes'
peac ock, picking up and swallowing
its food. He was engage on an end
less chain when he died. H, willed
all his automatic to the King.
Maetzel, the inventor of the metro
nome and of several musical automatic,
opened an exhibition in Vienna, in 1909,
with q life-size automaton trumpetel
as the chief attraction. When the
audience entered all they saw was S
tent After a time the curtains parted,
and Maetzel appeared leading forward
a trumpeter in the full regimentals Of
an Austrian dragon. By pressing the
left epaulet of the figure he made it
play cavalry calls and a march, and an
allegro by Weigl accompanied by a
full band of living musicians. Nor
was this all. The figure retired and
reappeared as a trumpeter Of the
French Guard. Maetzel wound it up
on the left hip, pressed once more on
the left epaulet. and it played the
French cavalry call, a French cavalry
march, a march by Dussek and one Of
Pieyel's allegros, the full band again
accompanying.
Knauss exhibited at Vienna an auto.
maton that wrote, and the Drozes,
father and son. constructed several
mechanical figures that both wrote and
played musical instruments. A pan.
tomime in five acts was performed by
a troupe of puppets in Paris in 1929,
and Bienfalt, in TAG. got up n repre-.
s~entation of 1.-THE Bombardment Of
Antwerp" by automatic. Another
piece performed by Beinfalt's auto.
mata, which he called comediens prac.
ticiens, was 1.-THE Grand Assault OF
Louis Globe
Democrat.
-One nf the fayOrito DastimeS in